Showing results for: “price gouging”
Sprint’s (Ironic?) Campaign for Competition
Sprint, perhaps the most vigorous opponent of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger, has been extolling the values of competition lately. Last Thursday and again today, the company ran full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal featuring the following text (which was apparently penned by Helen Steiner Rice): Competition is everything. Competition is the steady hand at our back, pushing ... Sprint’s (Ironic?) Campaign for Competition
WAPO Concludes that Vertical Efficiencies Trump Horizontal Market Power
A Washington Post editorial last week reached the surprising conclusion that a series of vertical and horizontal acquisitions that led to a firm owning about 40% of the gas stations in the District of Columbia was procompetitive. The editorial apparently concluded that the vertical integration efficiencies were more important than the adverse horizontal effects. The ... WAPO Concludes that Vertical Efficiencies Trump Horizontal Market Power
Nevada and the market for corporate law
I’m just catching up with this Board Member article about Delaware’s new competitor, Nevada. It notes that Nevada’s share of the out-of-state incorporation market rose from 4.6% in 2000 to 6% in 2007. Part of this may be due to lower fees than Delaware. But that can’t be the full explanation because all states are ... Nevada and the market for corporate law
The whistleblower rules and insider trading
The SEC has adopted Dodd-Frank whistleblower rules (see Law Blog story) which have sparked controversy because they award bounties without requiring use of internal corporate reporting mechanisms. Whistleblower organizations are happy, corporations not so much. It’s a good time to remember my proposal last year to let the whistleblowers trade: The beauty of the insider ... The whistleblower rules and insider trading
Jacoby & Meyers’ lawsuit challenges the legal establishment
The WSJ writes that Jacoby & Meyers Law Offices LLP, a pioneer of television legal advertising, filed lawsuits Wednesday challenging state laws in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut that prohibit nonattorneys from owning stakes in law firms. The firm, which has more than 60 lawyers and specializes in personal-injury cases, claims that the restrictions ... Jacoby & Meyers’ lawsuit challenges the legal establishment
Crime in Berkeley
“Sure, but they don’t have to carry exactly the same products. It’s not that there was no competition before — we carried some of the same items — but we had matching pricing.” That’s Shirley Ng, owner of the Country Cheese Coffee Market at 1578 Hopkins Street in Berkeley, CA. (HT: Marginal Revolution) The story is about how ... Crime in Berkeley
The WSJ redefines illegal insider trading
Today’s WSJ, in an obvious effort to grab readers seeking more insider trading titillation in the wake of the Galleon verdict, has a story about a new supposed scandal — investment banks offering hedge fund traders special access to dealmakers at exclusive lunches in order to get more trading business from the funds. The article ... The WSJ redefines illegal insider trading
Rajaratnam’s crime
Rajaratnam stands convicted. What, exactly, did he do wrong? Holman Jenkins, writing in today’s WSJ, appropriately mocks the notion driving the Rajaratnam prosecution that insider trading “law’s purpose is to protect the public from informed stock prices.” As Jenkins notes: There is no level playing field. Nor does there need to be one for the ... Rajaratnam’s crime
Wal-Mart, Jobs and Consumers
What happens when Wal-Mart comes to town? One thing is for sure, the line for jobs is long: In contrast, a new Walmart in Cleveland recently received 6000 applicants for 300 positions, and, not long ago, two Walmart stores in the Chicago area received 25,000 and 15,000 applications. The Cleveland store hired one in twenty ... Wal-Mart, Jobs and Consumers
The trouble with law reviews
I’m finally catching up with this NLJ article about Hofstra law prof Richard Neumann’s estimate that the cost of a law review article written by a tenured professor at a top law school is around $100,000 ($25-$42,000 for assistant professors at lower-paying law schools). The estimate includes the professor’s salary, benefits and research grants and ... The trouble with law reviews
Say on pay at the SEC?
Reuters reports on Henry Hu’s somewhat controversial tenure heading the SEC’s new Division of Risk, Strategy and Financial Innovation. The SEC brought in Hu, a widely recognized expert on financial regulation, in response to its embarrassing Madoff failure. The Reuters article discusses some reservations about how much Hu accomplished, but I want to focus on ... Say on pay at the SEC?
Politics and Price Gouging
Commissioner Rosch gets off his second shot in against the Department of Justice in just a few weeks in the pages of the Wall Street Journal — this time in a letter to the editor: Obama’s Political ‘Price-Gouging’ If any doubts existed about whether the Justice Department is just “an arm of the administration,” they ... Politics and Price Gouging
